Videogame News

[Stanshall]

In The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa, a Yakuza/Persona-lite (very lite) which recently came out on the Switch, there's one button dedicated to sparking up a ciggie. Some quality vicarious smoking for me.

[KSubzero1000]

That said, of all the examples of cigarettes in gaming I can think of are games that kids probably shouldn't be playing anyway. It's not like Mario's idle animation in Odyssey is him sitting on a park bench and taking a drag on a pack of Lambert and Butler. I think unfortunately this stems from the mind set that games are for kids and thus if something is in a game that is inappropriate for kids, it's an inappropriate product. Which is an issue with the wider media at large and parents who don't think twice about buying GTA V for their little one.

Very well said. For a sad amount of people, video games are still being viewed as children's toys / glorified nannies. Which is what is fueling these kinds of debates time and time again.

Of all the games I can think of that prominently feature cigarettes (the aforementioned MGS & Vanquish, and I would add Yakuza as well), none of them are made for children. MGS has various bits of dialogue specifically centered around the health effects of tobacco, not to mention the associated in-game penalty. Vanquish is a more straightforward example of the "Smoking is Cool" trope, but I just classify it as silly adult-themed humor in the same way as some violent or sexual content. Yakuza (at least the cutscenes!) is meant to be a reflection of Japanese society in which smoking is still a more popular and widely accepted habit than in the West, so I don't think it should be held to a different standard than a similar movie or TV production.

Anyway, the age ratings on the box are there for a reason, so I would be curious if those "experts" are sounding the same alarms when it comes to mature rated films featuring similar imagery. My guess is that they aren't.

[Caligulas Horse]

If ‘all’ you think they’ll be doing is indulging in mindless violence, you should be aware: they could be picking up more bad habits than you bargained for.

haha that's brilliant.

Happily watch Lil Timmy blow half the town's face off but they better not be huffing those damn cancer sticks!

[clippa]

There are cigarettes in Enter The Gungeon - https://enterthegungeon.gamepedia.com/Cigarettes

Damages the player for half a heart. If the player has armor, the damage will remove the armor.

Increases Coolness by 1 per use, decreasing the cooldown of active items and increasing the chance of items dropping upon clearing a room. The coolness bonus will remain for the entire run, even if the Cigarettes are removed from the player's inventory.

[Caligulas Horse]

Anyway, the age ratings on the box are there for a reason, so I would be curious if those "experts" are sounding the same alarms when it comes to mature rated films featuring similar imagery. My guess is that they aren't.

They did kind of address that in the study, they think that parents are less strict with age ratings for games than they are with films.

"Psychologist Dr Joanne Cranwell from the UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies, said:”Although around 54% of UK adolescents play video games online, parental concern over exposure to inappropriate content while playing video games seems to be lower than for other media, like movies for example. While 80% of children aged 10-15 play packaged or online video games with an age rating higher than their age, more than half of British parents are unaware of the harmful content this exposes them to. "

[ratsoalbion]

Which made sense back at the time when parents hadn’t grown up with games, but really doesn’t now.

Pretty much all my friends who have kids are at least aware of videogames and observe the age ratings (with a little flexibility in some cases).

[Caligulas Horse]

Yeah I'd say the parents I know are pretty on it with their kids playing games, the same as they are with them watching youtube or just being on the internet in general. There has been so much in the media over the past few years about the dangers of letting your kids play games or go online unsupervised.

The study isn't really worth the time of day anyway

"The researchers used YouGov survey tools to ask 1,094 UK adolescents aged 11-17 whether they had played any of the most popular video games identified as containing either tobacco or alcohol imagery. They were also asked whether and to what extent they smoked or drank alcohol. The study found that adolescents who had played at least one game with tobacco or alcohol content were twice as likely to have tried smoking or consumed alcohol themselves."

That really doesn't tell us much at all.

[Craig]

I mean, when I was that age, if you asked a bunch of 16 year olds in my area who has tried alcohol you’d have 80% of people saying they had and 20% people lying.

[dezm0nd]

Which made sense back at the time when parents hadn’t grown up with games, but really doesn’t now.

Pretty much all my friends who have kids are at least aware of videogames and observe the age ratings (with a little flexibility in some cases).

Its getting better but I remember working in the indie shops in town (Vice City, Manhunt, San Andreas era) and the parents mostly didn't care or take any note of them. We always advised the parent on what the games contents were and sometimes urged them not to buy the game if we felt it offered anything truly outrageous for the child involved but ultimately they just wanted their kid to shut up and stop asking, really.

[dezm0nd]

Looks like they're getting the band back together.

Super Monkey Ball is coming back in some form!

https://www.famitsu.com/news/201907/16179604.html

[KSubzero1000]

...Oh, that's interesting.

Not sure I would buy it again considering how SMB and the GC controller are so perfect for one another, but that's definitely good news for those new to the series.

[clippa]

Remake of Banana Blitz (the first Monkey Ball game for Wii) according to gosokkyu.

[Alex79uk]

I never liked the Wii one for some reason but one on Gamecube loads, although I'm sure we spent more time on the mini games. Hoping this remake isn't motion control only, I'm sure it won't be.

[ColinAlonso]

Dotemu have confirmed that Yuzo Koshiro and Motohiro Kawashima will return to compose Streets of Rage 4 and they will be joined by Yoko Shimomura, Hideki Naganuma (not mentioned in the video I think but he is in the video description) and Keiji Yamagishi.

Serious star power there.

[Flabyo]

That’s impressive, pretty much everyone who ever composed for a 90s game where someone is punching someone else.

[Alex79uk]

Nintendo confirm new Switch model is incoming - only improvement is battery life. Will hit Japan around August time. Its not an upgrade really, just a new revision/model like you get with the Xbox and PS4.

https://www.engadget.com/2019/07/17/nin ... tery-life/

[ratsoalbion]

Significant battery improvement though - almost double.

[KSubzero1000]

Wait, has anybody heard of this?!

(WARNING: Brain melting dubstep)


Apparently it's a sort of dystopian Papers Please clone set in a far-right post-Brexit UK with all the "biting social commentary" one would expect. Out on PC, coming to Switch soon-ish.

...Dunno what to make of this.


PS: Avoid ALL OTHER comment sections regarding this game.

[Suits]

Significant battery improvement though - almost double.

Ooffff, that would be nice.

I get maybe two hours out of mine now, three if it’s a less demanding game.

[Alex79uk]

Yeah battery life is awful. My Vita literally lasts days. Well over a week usually!